In the course of two decades,
HURGHADA
has been transformed from a humble
fishing village of a few hundred
souls into a booming town of 50,000
people, drawn here from all over
Egypt by the lure of making money.
This phenomenal growth is almost
entirely due to
tourism ,
which accounts for 95 percent of the
local economy. Yet it's worth taking
Hurghada's claims to be a seaside
resort with a handful of salt.
Unlike Sinai, where soft sand and
gorgeous reefs are within easy reach
and women can bathe unhassled,
Hurghada's public beaches are
distant or uninviting, while the
best marine life is far offshore. If
you're not into diving or discos,
it's hard to find much to like about
Hurghada - though you have to admire
its commercial gusto; many of the
townsfolk come from Luxor's west
bank, where tourism has been a way
of life for generations.
While package tourists laze in
their resorts, independent
travellers often feel hard done by.
Paying for boat trips and private
beaches is unavoidable if you're to
enjoy Hurghada's assets, and
although conditions for diving,
windsurfing and deep-sea fishing are
great, the cost is high, with
real bargains limited to
accommodation. Nor will you save
much by self-catering; everything in
the shops is more expensive than in
Cairo or the Nile Valley. As tour
groups come all year round, there's
no "off" season for
holiday villages, whose peak
times are the European Christmas
and Easter holidays and the Russian
vacation period of August and
September. Low-budget hotels are
most in demand over winter, when
templed-out backpackers flood in
from the Nile Valley en route to
Sinai.
The town itself is a hotchpotch
of utilitarian structures, garish
hotels and gaudy boutiques, but
Egyptians love its wide boulevards
and sea breezes, the spaciousness
and "Benetton ambience
". Nowhere else in Egypt are
shorts de rigueur and holiday
romances so easy. Russians have
added fresh spice to its already
cosmopolitan mix of Italians,
Germans, French, Brits, Aussies and
Japanese, whose hedonistic potential
is grasped by Saudi princes, for
whom Hurghada is only two hours away
by private jet. For Westerners,
however, the chief lure remains
underwater: a score of coral islands
and reefs within a few hours' reach
by boat, and many other amazing dive
sites that can be visited on
liveaboards.
